Apparatus has heretofore been made for example as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,580,905, for mixing and dispensing a liquid flavoring material with a neutral frozen confection such as ice cream, frozen custard or the like to produce a flavored frozen confection. In general, the liquid flavoring material is stored under pressure and the frozen confection and flavoring material are fed simultaneously into a mixing chamber having an open lower discharge outlet, and a mixer in the chamber mixes the frozen confection and flavoring material as it flows to the discharge outlet. As disclosed in this patent, the valve piston is arranged to telescope with the mixer as the valve piston is moved downwardly, to discharge substantially all of the mixture from the mixing chamber and thereby minimize flavor carry over. While the apparatus disclosed in this patent is suitable for blending and dispensing a flowable liquid material on a flowing stream of frozen confection, it was not adapted for mixing edible solids such as pieces of fruit, nuts, candy and the like with a frozen confection.
It is desirable to distribute the edible solids uniformly in the confection material without comminuting the edible solids. However, in a mixing apparatus as disclosed in the above patent wherein the mixer is rotated at a sufficiently high speed to mix the flavoring material and confection as they flow in a stream through the dispensing nozzle, the mixer would tend to break-up and comminute the solid edibles. Further, the prior mixing and dispensing apparatus could not feed a charge of edible solids into the mixing chamber. In addition, the prior mixing and dispensing apparatus did not mix and dispense a measured volume of material.
Some frozen confection machines such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,449,623, mix edible solids in the frozen confection freezer to form a relatively large batch of the frozen confection mixture. Some other frozen confection machines such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,239,165 and 3,132,847 feed and mix edible solids with frozen confection as it issues in a continuous stream from a frozen confection freezer. However, such frozen confection machines are not suitable for mixing a selected one of a plurality of different edible solid materials with a frozen confection, in small, serving size quantities.